[How To] Help Test An Improved Unity Files Lens

Ubuntu 12.04 Beta users are being asked to help test an improved version of the Files Lens for Unity.

The file search in the ‘testing’ version has been tweaked to look for files sources additional to Zeitgeist – Ubuntu’s activity and file logger. This change, Canonical’s Alan Pope says, means the Lens is ‘more likely to find the things you’re looking for’.

Currently only files that have been logged by Zeitgeist appear in search results. This means that if Zeitgeist hasn’t logged a file or folder then it won’t be shown in the search results – a less than ideal situation.

The improved lens still shows results from Zeitgeist but augments them with ‘results obtained by invoking locate’ (a command-line file searching tool). “It’s a simple change,” says Alan, “but most welcome, and in need of testing!”.

How to Test

The one requirement for the lens is that you are using Ubuntu 12.04. If you’re not then you can not upgrade to the improved Files lens.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-team/lenses-testing

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-lens-files

You will need to logout of Unity and back in (or reboot entirely) for the new lens to take effect.

Once in, try out the improvements by searching for files that you know you have (ergo so you know that if they don’t show then it’s not because they don’t exist!)

Bugs should be filed against Unity-Lens-Files in Launchpad, but be sure to mention that you’re using the new PPA if doing this.